The surprise detention of Roman Polanski has been met with indignation in Hollywood and sparked a flurry of media speculation over the real reason behind Saturday night’s arrest in Zurich.

Film mogul Harvey Weinstein has got behind a campaign by French film-makers calling on US authorities not to extradite the Oscar-winning Polish director in connection with a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor dating back more than three decades…

“We’re calling on every film-maker we can to help fix this terrible situation,” Weinstein said, reviving a theme he adopted earlier in the year after he bought international distribution rights at Sundance to the HBO documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired.

The film uncovered flaws in the legal case against the director, prompting Weinstein to allude to a possible campaign to get the charges against Polanski dropped. At a hearing this year a Los Angeles superior court judge agreed there was “substantial misconduct” in the original hearing.

If there was substantial misconduct, why not come back to LA and litigate the matter at an appellate level? Answer: Because Polanski and his cretinous supporters don’t care if he’s guilty or not. They want him to walk free, in the name of “art,” without another word spoken on the subject. More at the Daily Mail:

French culture minister Frederic Mitterand said he was ‘deeply shocked’ by the sudden arrest, and had already discussed the matter with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In a statement, Mr Mitterand, a nephew of former President Francois Mitterand, said he learned of the arrest ‘with astonishment’ and that he regretted ‘in the strongest way that a new ordeal has been inflicted on someone who has already gone through so much’.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the arrest was a ‘bit sinister’…

The Zurich Film Festival jury accused Switzerland of ‘philistine collusion’.

‘The case is three decades old and is all but dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by and wait for his release and his next masterwork,’ said jury president Debra Winger.

Other members of the film industry, including Italian actress Monica Bellucci, French actress Fanny Ardant, president of the Cannes film festival Gilles Jacob and Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai issued a petition demanding his immediate release.

Again: Convicted child-rapist and fugitive from justice. Magically transformed, by Hollywood libertinism and douchebaggery, into an honest-to-goodness victim who’s being persecuted by the evil empire for, um, forcibly sodomizing a 13-year-old and then skipping bail. I can’t do any better than this righteous Salon piece. Go ye and read, right now.

Update: Needless to say, this reminds me of the left’s umbrage at conservatives daring to bring up Chappaquiddick after Teddy died. Yeah, he left a woman to drown and then made jokes about it afterwards; he was for universal health care, though, wasn’t he? Same with Polanski: Dare we deny the man who made “Chinatown” an occasional drugging and raping of a child? Sure, a kid gets traumatized for life, but on the other side of the scale: “Rosemary’s Baby.” It’d be sweet if the left could come up with some sort of mathematical formula by which we could tell whether an artist or liberal politician has exceeded his quotient of moral indulgence. I’m assuming “Chinatown” wasn’t so awesome that Polanski would be excused for shooting a kid in the head at point-blank range, so evidently the film’s “worth” less than that but more than a child-rape. Let’s figure out just how much of a liberal hero you have to be to get away with certain crimes.

I’m not advocating a “get out of jail free” card here, but let’s be pragmatic. Some people are simply more valuable than others.

mr_B on September 29, 2009 at 12:44 AM

So they should get out of jail, for free; because they’re more important… I’m confused.

Was it the concept of a card that offended you? Getting them out of jail, for free seems ok… you dislike cards that much?

And again, since they’re “more important” than others and shouldn’t spend time in jail; I’m guessing this runs out at some point. If they butcher and vivisect 50 women in their basement I’m guessing you still think they should be imprisoned.

But if they only rape one girl. that might be ok?

So we really need some sort of checklist, some way of knowing what crimes “important people” can do; and how “valuable” they have to be in order to get a free pass and avoid jail time.

Otherwise we might be promoting that the wrong people walk free. Especially when a case really walks the line; we need some sort of rule don’t we? How do we decide who to let go and who to actually punish for committing crimes while we’re discriminately and unevenly applying justice?

Polanski did not have sex with a minor. He drugged and then forcibly raped and sodomized a minor. If he is allowed to go free then who can you hold. Do we live in an oligarchy where only the working and anonymous classes can be prosecuted and punished? We should have broken off diplomatic ties with France and imposed a naval blockade over this years ago. Most actually serving time didn’t do anything as bad as the child molester Polanski. The View is pro child molester.

It’s totally bizarre. The left will back the worst of the worst criminals in their heinous activities. I don’t get it. Remember the Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal (murderer of officer Daniel Faulkner) and the Hollywood elite that to this day defend him?

After a flurry of comments and emails regarding this post, ranging from appreciation of my essay, to articulate disagreement, to insane sexist supposedly anti-rape salvos, I’ve written my take on the Polanski case, at my site.

Let’s try it one more time….
She is 13, he got her drunk, then drugged her, raped her, then sodomized her and then raped her again. All the while she was saying no, and trying to resist.
It is not about him being a fugitive…it is about him being a rapist of a child.
Get it….she was brutally raped by a perverted man…and you think that should go without punishment.
You are sick, sick, sick…you don’t care to punish a man who raped a young girl…may God have mercy on you and your heartless soul…

But . . . it’s a well known fact that Democrats are all about protecting and cherishing children, and making sure the rich and famous pay for their crimes, just as the poor and unknown do. Right? Hellooooo?

Now lets see, which one of these lefty turds would let him drug and have sex with their 11 or 12 year old… Opps, maybe all of them, I forgot who we are talking about here. It may be a teachable moment. Cause after all as Whoopie said, it wasn’t Rape-Rape SICK SICK F*ckers.

The dark secret is that mothers and fathers have been shopping their young (underage) daughters and sons around Hollywood for decades. Everyone has heard about the famous “casting couch” that young actors must endure for a shot a stardom.

Its also no wonder that the Hollywood types have started to rally around one of their own. You must wonder what some of these actors did to get their roles.

I’m just sayin…

After all, does anyone expect anything approaching morality to emanate from California?

does anyone know if jack nicholson was home at the time? if he was, what was he doing at the time? has he spoken out about this matter? distanced himself from polanski? did nicholson sign the recent petition?

Had it been my daughter, I would most likely have been convicted of premeditated murder.
They would have found him in piles of Grizzly Bear dung spread around my home here in the woods of Alaska.
There’s a nice thousand pounder that lives about 400 yards from my cabin. He’s always hungry.